Oklahoma’s legislative session began today, and Governor Kevin Stitt kicked it off by laying out his top priorities during his 7th State of the State address. He outlined four key principles:

• Protect Oklahoma taxpayers.
• Be the best state for business.
• Safeguard the state’s savings.
• Protect the Oklahoma way of life.

During the address, he also announced the issuance of Executive Order 2025-04, creating the Division of Government Efficiency (DOGE-OK) within the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES). The new division will focus on eliminating wasteful government spending, improving efficiency, and ensuring taxpayer dollars are being used effectively across state government.

DOGE-OK is authorized to identify and eliminate waste. The executive order creates the unpaid position of Chief DOGE Advisor, who will report directly to Governor Stitt, lead the division independently, and receive broad authority to review agency records, data, software systems, and I.T. systems.

The vision of the Oklahoma Beef Council is to be a positive difference for Oklahoma's farming and ranching families and the greater beef community, and its mission is to enhance beef demand by strengthening consumer trust and exceeding consumer expectations. 

To learn more, visit www.oklabeef.org. Also, don't forget to like its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/oklabeef for stories on Oklahoma's ranching families and great beef recipes. 

And Check out this video below that helps you learn more about the Beef Checkoff- .

Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, and House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, issued statements in response to the Governor’s State of the State address:

House Speaker Hilbert said in part, “I look forward to working with Gov. Stitt and Pro Tem Paxton to enact many of the priorities the governor discussed today. We all agree in wanting Oklahoma taxpayers to keep as much of their hard-earned money as possible while being as prepared as possible for future budget uncertainty. We will continue budget discussions in earnest once we have final FY26 numbers from the Board of Equalization..."

“Governor Stitt laid out his vision and outlined a plan to move Oklahoma forward in a positive trajectory that we can all agree with,” Pro Tem Paxton began. “The Senate shares his commitment to growing our economy, improving education, ensuring safe, thriving communities and improving the lives of Oklahomans by allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money..."

The Democratic leadership- Senator Julia Kirt and Representative Cyndi Munson also offered their critique of the State of the State- click on their names to jump to their statements.

Exploring Beef Cattle Genomic Indexes with AGI’s Kelli Retallick-Riley

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, continues a conversation with the president of Angus Genetics, Inc. (AGI), Kelli Retallick-Riley, about genomic progress in the beef cattle industry. Yesterday, the two of them talked about genomics, and today’s Q&A centers on indexes.

“Baskets of traits is a great way to describe it,” Retallick-Riley said. “It is all of the traits for a certain segment of our industry – what are the costs and what are the revenues? One of our more maternal cow calf-oriented indexes is going to be our maternal weaned calf value. What is our output? It is pounds of weaned calf. What is our input? It is going to be everything to do with that cow.”

The mature size of the cow will relate to how much she will consume over her lifetime. Her heifer pregnancy values have to do with her fertility. Teat size, functional longevity, and udder suspension scores are also included in these indexes.

“If you think of all the reasons a cow may leave the herd early, that obviously affects profitability,” Retallick-Riley continued. “Those are the types of costs we are thinking about in something like maternal weaned calf value, but they are designed with the commercial breeder in mind.”

Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry as part of the weekly series known as the “Cow Calf Corner,” published electronically by Dr. Peel, Mark Johnson, and Paul Beck. Today, Dr. Peel discusses the 2024 USDA NASS Cattle Inventory Report.

The annual Cattle report from USDA-NASS at the end of January showed that the U.S. cattle industry continued to get smaller in 2024. The inventory of all cattle and calves was 86.66 million head, down 0.6 percent year over year. This total inventory was 1.8 percent lower than the recent cyclical low in 2014 and the lowest since 1951. The all cattle and calves inventory has decreased 8.0 million head (8.5 percent) from the cyclical peak in 2019.

The beef cow herd on January 1 was 27.86 million head, down 0.5 percent year over year and 3.8 percent below the previous low in 2014; the lowest since 1961. The beef cow herd has declined 3.78 million head from the recent peak in 2019, a decrease of 11.9 percent in six years. The January 1 inventory of beef replacement heifers was 4.67 million head, 1.0 percent less than one year ago and the smallest inventory since 1949. The 2025 beef replacement heifer inventory is down 9.0 percent from the previous low in 2011.

The dairy cow inventory in this report was 9.35 million head, unchanged from last year. The inventory of dairy replacement heifers was 3.9 million head, down 0.9 percent year over year. The inventory of bulls was 2.01 million head, down 0.6 percent from one year ago. 

The Oklahoma Department of Veteran Affairs provides a multitude of services for veterans and their spouses including assistance in navigating claims and benefits, entrepreneurship support, and more. Randall Coon, the organization’s program administrator, was at the Local Ag Summit last week and took time to speak with Farm Director KC Sheperd about his part in the program.

“I work with veterans that are transitioning out of the service or looking for their next career,” he said. “I don’t want to find them a job. I want to help them get into their next career. Sometimes, we have to get some education before we start a new career and I help and guide them through that, also through the resume, how to dress, and interview.”

The Department of Veteran Affairs has joined forces with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and the Department of Commerce to put on hiring events for veterans.

He detailed how the Norman Veterans Home is in need of registered nurses, LPNs, and CNAs, as well as help in food and laundry services and maintenance; therefore, they hold a hiring fair on the third Thursday of every month to help both the veterans in the home and veterans seeking new career opportunities from outside the home.

Cattle producers from across the United States are gathering in San Antonio for the 2025 edition of CattleCon. There were some early meetings on Monday- but the action really cranks up today- with the Opening General Session- the opening of the massive Trade Show and more.

Our coverage in the days ahead is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.

Ruth Coffey from southern Oklahoma is wrapping up her year as President of the American National Cattlewomen- they had their meetings on Sunday and Monday- Cheyenne Sparks of our state was elected to join their Board of Directors. Ruth, by the way, will be one of the featured cattle leaders on stage this afternoon at the opening General Session.

There are a bunch of issues that producers will be discussing in Committee meetings and in the hallways. It's a busy time ahead for those gathering between now and Thursday night.

John Deere Expands Options for Adding Precision Technology

John Deere announced today the release of a new precision ag hardware kit – Precision Essentials – that will reduce upfront costs, making advanced precision agriculture technologies accessible to farmers, growers and ranchers, regardless of the farm size, crop or livestock focus. The new kit includes the following hardware: 

• G5 or G5Plus universal display 
• StarFire® 7500 receiver 
• JDLink® M or R modem 

The Precision Essentials kit not only allows for machine automation to be executed with the latest John Deere hardware and software but also provides customers the opportunity to manage their entire farm in one place with the John Deere Operations Center™. Farmers can now retrofit legacy John Deere equipment and mixed fleets with the necessary technology to accomplish gains in productivity from insights into their operation, making it easier to manage their farms. 

“Today’s agricultural landscape is rapidly evolving with increasing pressures to boost yields, reduce input costs and adopt sustainable farming practices,” said Christopher Murray, John Deere go-to-market manager for embedded technology. “The Precision Essentials kit is designed to help all types of farmers, growers and ranchers address these challenges head-on with a low upfront cost that provides financial flexibility and the opportunity to recognize the benefits immediately from enhanced operational efficiency.”